2013 Bates Summer Scholars Program: Residential Life
Summer Scholars live in together in doubles or triples in a coeducational residential house on campus. The house has a computer workstation and study room, a lounge and television, kitchen, and laundry facilities. Students take their meals at the college Commons, along with other Bates students who are spending the summer on campus as researchers or employees, and the many other individuals who are at Bates for summer programs, including the renowned Bates Dance Festival.
The Summer Scholars have dedicated study space in the Bates Imaging and Computing Center, but they usually study together in residence house in the evenings. Summer Scholars have access to all that Bates has to offer, including our extensive athletic facilities, where they can work out during the week and or weekends.
Two residence fellows live with the Summer Scholars. The residence fellows are upper-class students with extensive training as residential life coordinators; some residence fellows were Summer Scholars themselves. They manage the day-to-day affairs of the house, plan social activities, and help Summer Scholars make the adjustment to college. The residence fellows work with staff of the Dean of Students’ Office to make residential and social life an important and positive feature of the summer program. Living in a house the way many upper-class Batesies do offers Summer Scholars an introduction to the community life of the college.
With the residence fellows, the Summer Scholars undertake a wide range of fun social activities on Saturdays. Some take place on campus, taking advantage of Bates’ vibrant summer life. Others take students off campus to explore Maine and enjoy the beautiful summertime of “Vacationland,” or to experience city life in Portland or Boston. On the weeknights, study breaks, ice cream and mini-golf, and movies are interspersed with studying. One goal of the program is to introduce students the college’s home town of Lewiston and neighboring Auburn, as well as nearby mountains, lakes, and Maine’s spectacular ocean beaches.
On Sundays, students have free time when they can catch up on sleep, do laundry, homework, exercise, explore Lewiston-Auburn, or do things together.
Students find that living and studying together is a real strength of the Bates Summer Scholars Program, as they develop friendships and help each other. Said one student at the end of the program, “We’re all really, really close, and I feel like I’m leaving here with a family.”